Eyewitness reports vary about the strange sightings with some people saying they saw around 10 orange lights in the sky while others spotted up to 100 green lights floating around the Meadowhall area.

John and Angela Crookes watched the lights for around five minutes in Shiregreen after they were alerted to the unusual sight by a bemused neighbour.

Angela, 30, said: "It was quite bizarre and not like anything we had ever seen before. To start with there were quite a few of the lights in a cluster. They weren't flashing and didn't make a noise but were as clear as anything."

John described seeing a group of around 40 of the orange lights, which then headed off towards Concord Park before other lights appeared in much smaller groups.

The 33-year-old added: "I was wondering if it was an asteroid which had broken up but one changed direction and you could see something like the jet stream of a plane coming after them."

Norman Marritt said he spotted several pairs of green lights flying over Shiregreen at about 10.30pm on Saturday.

He said: "My wife saw them first and we both watched them for the time it took them to go past. I counted 10 pairs and there had already been some more before that.

"They were circles of lights going in pairs and they seemed to come from the direction of Rotherham. I would like to find out what they were."

South Yorkshire Police said they did not receive any extra calls around the time the lights were spotted and have no explanation for what might have been behind them.